


Charming

by hazelNuts



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Allison Has a Cat, Alternate Universe - Magic, F/F, Fluff, Harry Potter Universe, Neighbors, POV Allison, Witch Lydia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-02
Updated: 2016-06-02
Packaged: 2018-07-11 19:20:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7066813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hazelNuts/pseuds/hazelNuts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Allison loves her apartment. She's on her own for the first time, well, except for her cat. Even if her cat spends most of his time at her neighbour's. She can't blame him. Her neighbour is gorgeous, if a little... strange.</p><p>
  <i>Allison loves her apartment, partly because it’s her first apartment. She’s all on her own now, officially a fully functional adult with a job and her own place. After college, she had to go back to living with her parents for a while, simply not able to afford her own place while paying off college, even with her jobs at the coffee shop and the sporting goods store. She’s very grateful for her partial scholarship, and for the college fund her parents set up when she was a kid, because it meant she’d paid off most of her debt in a year, and could actually afford a decent apartment when she found a job as a personal trainer.</i>
  <br/>
  <i>She opens her fridge, looking for a snack to hold her over until dinner. When all she finds is three day old Chinese, she groans. Okay, so maybe she’s not a fully functional adult. There’s a bit of a learning curve.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Charming

**Author's Note:**

> If you think I forgot any tags, please let me know in the comments.
> 
> Written for Teen Wolf Glompfest. My prompt (prompted by wibblywobblytimeywimeygirl) was: "Derek/Stiles or Allison/Lydia: Hi I just moved in next door a couple weeks ago and don't get offended but I think you might be a witch? I swear I have reasons, it's not just because my cat likes you -- WOW you're hot!"
> 
> Beta magic was provided by banshee-cheekbones, who made this fic read as smoothly as it does. Thank you!

Allison loves her apartment, partly because it’s her first apartment. She’s all on her own now, officially a fully functional adult with a job and her own place. After college, she had to go back to living with her parents for a while, simply not able to afford her own place while paying off college, even with her jobs at the coffee shop and the sporting goods store. She’s very grateful for her partial scholarship, and for the college fund her parents set up when she was a kid, because it meant she’d paid off most of her debt in a year, and could actually afford a decent apartment when she found a job as a personal trainer.

She opens her fridge, looking for a snack to hold her over until dinner. When all she finds is three day old Chinese, she groans. Okay, so maybe she’s not a fully functional adult. There’s a bit of a learning curve. Looking for her jacket, Allison stumbles over one of the many boxes she still hasn’t unpacked, despite having lived in the apartment for almost a month now. If she wants to keep telling herself she’s an adult, she should definitely get on that, but first: food.

Closing the door behind her, Allison catches sight of Patchwork jumping out of the window, onto her balcony, and she adds cat food on her mental grocery list. Not that Patchwork eats at home very often. He spends most of his time at her neighbour’s place, only coming back in the evenings to curl up on Allison’s lap. Allison completely understands his fondness for her neighbour, Lydia. The woman is gorgeous, with a heart stopping smile, sharp wit, intelligent eyes, and an air of mystery.

Walking to the grocery store on the corner, Allison lets her mind wander towards Lydia. She’s talked to the woman a couple times, flirted even. Maybe. With girls, it’s always been a bit harder for Allison to distinguish friendly banter from flirtatious banter. She could just ask Lydia, of course. Lydia doesn’t seem like the type of person who would get awkward if you asked them out and they said no. And if Lydia said no to a romantic date, Allison could always ask her on a friend date. She’s pretty sure they’re at least half-way towards being friends already.

Allison grabs a cart and pushes it through the store, mentally repeating her grocery list, ticking off the items as she puts them in her cart: tofu, broccoli, pasta, tomatoes, spinach, ice-cream, apples, bananas, cookies, milk, (does she still have coffee? Might as well buy it, just to be safe) coffee, beer. As she turns her cart into the pet food aisle, her eyes fall on the toilet paper. That’s one thing you can never have enough of. She grabs a pack and continues to the cat food.

 What to buy to persuade Patchwork not to change owners? She decides on the same hard food she always does, but chooses soft food with real bits of chicken and fish in it. Not that it’ll smell like chicken, or fish, when she opens it later to lure him back inside. Maybe cats really do have superior noses and they can smell the chicken, or the fish, within the cat food stink.

Back home, Allison puts all the groceries away, grabs a cookie from the new pack, and goes looking for Patchwork. He’s a distinctive cat, with black, white, red, and even brown patches in his fur. His little feet are completely white, though, and there’s a small red handlebar moustache underneath his nose.

She opens the door to her balcony, but all she finds there is a chair and the plant that’s half-dead from lack of sun. Allison looks to her left, to Lydia’s balcony. Unlike her own, Lydia’s balcony is flourishing, full of vibrant green plants and multi-coloured flowers.

Allison doesn’t know how Lydia does it. The only time their side of the building gets any sun is in the early hours of the morning, which means that Lydia must have some artificial lights, but Allison has never been able to spot them. Lydia probable has some amazing plant food and an insanely high water bill, too.

Maybe it’s just part of the mystery that is Lydia Martin, Allison thinks, munching on her cookie and trying to peek through the foliage on Lydia’s balcony to see if she can find her cat. Like the parties. Lydia gives a lot of parties, or at least has company over a lot, but Allison’s never heard them. Once, when she came home from a late appointment, she walked up to her door in an exhausted daze, barely getting her key in the lock, when Lydia’s door opened and two men stumbled out, accompanied by a blast of noise. Allison jumped in surprise, so shocked by the noise and the intensity of the two men’s make out session, that Lydia’s words, and the words of the song that was playing, hadn’t really sunk in until she was already in bed.

Lydia had yelled at the men that they should always remember to put the sound shield up before leaving, and then she’d closed the door, cutting off the voice that sang about Veelas and vampires.

Allison still doesn’t know what Veelas are, or what a sound shield is exactly. She’d tried looking it up online, but found nothing that made sense.

‘Gotcha,’ Allison whispers as she catches a glimpse of bright red and deep black fur. She quickly exits her balcony and crosses her apartment as she swallows the last of her cookie. On a hunch, she grabs the rest of the packet of cookies and puts them on a plate, to give to Lydia as a thank you for playing host to her cat. And if Lydia invites her in for some tea or coffee, and Allison finds out if they’ve actually been flirting for the past month, that would just be a bonus.

Allison knocks on Lydia’s door, her heart jumping when it’s opened almost immediately. Lydia is frowning at a piece of paper in her hand, but her face clears when she looks up at Allison.

‘Hey. What’s up?’ Lydia asks, rolling up the paper.

Allison always feels like she needs to restart her thoughts when she sees Lydia. The woman is beautiful, but there is also something faintly otherworldly about her. It probably has something to do with Lydia’s clothes; capes instead of coats, always a hat that gives the illusion of being pointy, the flowers on Lydia’s dresses looking like they grow and bloom with every swish of her skirt. And though the capes and dresses don’t reach the floor, Lydia always manages to sweep.

‘Patchwork has made himself at home on your balcony again,’ Allison explains. She holds up the plate of cookies. ‘Sorry.’

Lydia laughs, taking the plate from Allison. ‘It’s fine. I like animals.’

‘I get a feeling they like you, too.’

Lydia’s smile widens minutely, then she steps back and opens the door wider for Allison to step through.

Allison’s never been inside Lydia’s apartment before. It’s very elegant, decorated with antique furniture with modern touches. It’s very Lydia, Allison thinks. From what she can see, purple and white are the most dominant colours, but little accents of red, blue and green can be found everywhere. There are almost just as many plants and flowers in the living room as there are on the balcony.

‘Did you make these yourself?’ Lydia asks, leading the way to the couch.

‘No, but I put them on the plate myself,’ Allison grins.

‘Very nicely done,’ Lydia laughs.

They pass the kitchen, and Allison can’t help but glance inside. What she sees makes her freeze in her tracks. A small black cauldron is simmering on the fire, gold and blue smoke swirling out of it.

‘You are a witch!’ Allison exclaims, then slaps her hand over her mouth when Lydia turns sharply. ‘I’m sorry! It’s just… Patchwork never likes anyone and then he spent so much time here, I couldn’t help but think you were somehow magical and it kind of spiralled from there, with how you manage to actually grow things on your balcony, and how no noise ever comes from your apartment, and your clothes—‘

‘What about my clothes?’ Lydia asks sharply.

‘I like them,’ Allison says placatingly. She focuses on one of the flowers on the skirt of Lydia’s dress, just in time to see it bloom, its red and white petals on full display. ‘They’re just not normal. Floral patterns don’t usually behave like actual flowers.’

Lydia smooths down her skirt, then raises her eyebrows in admission, relaxing a little.

‘And, you know, there’s the cauldron in your kitchen,’ Allison chuckles, nodding at where the smoke is now turning entirely blue.

At Allison’s chuckle, Lydia relaxes completely. She places the roll of paper on her coffee table, next to several others and a jar of ink with a quill sticking out of it.

‘You can’t tell anyone. Ever,’ Lydia impresses on her. She sits down on the couch and pats the cushion next to her. Allison sits down, looking at Lydia questioningly. Lydia has magic, why would it matter if other people knew? It seems almost selfish to keep something like that a secret.

‘I’m not the only one. There’s a whole community of witches and wizards,’ Lydia says, answering the unspoken question. ‘It’s a world hidden from the one you live in, with our own schools, shops, books. And it’s not just people, there are plants, animals, intelligent non-humans. It’s beautiful and rich and wild and dangerous, and there will be people who want to hurt it or profit from it.’

‘I won’t tell anyone,’ Allison promises without hesitation. She doesn’t really understand why it has to be hidden, but Lydia seems adamant. ‘And schools? Really?’

‘Yes. I’m a teacher, in fact.’

That was the first of the hundreds of questions Allison has for Lydia, most of which Lydia answers while they sip the coffee she’d floated over from the kitchen, with a wand she pulled from a pocket in her skirt. Lydia isn’t free with information on every subject, staying tight-lipped about the magic school and her witch and wizard acquaintances, so Allison changes the subject to food, music and botany, or “herbology” as Lydia calls it.

In return, Allison answers Lydia’s questions about the non-magical world. She presses her lips together to keep from laughing when Lydia starts using the word Muggle when talking about something non-magical. Lydia’s parents are both magical, and though Lydia’s father is Muggleborn and works at a Muggle job, her parents divorced when Lydia was young and she doesn’t see him, or his side of the family, much, so most of the Muggle world is a mystery to her.

The light outside is fading when Patchwork decides to join them, purring as he winds himself through Allison’s and Lydia’s legs, asking to be fed and petted. His fur is warm, like he’s been lying in the sun all day. Allison pets him, while looking curiously up at Lydia.

‘Do you have your own private sun on your balcony or something?’

‘Actually, I do,’ Lydia nods with a proud smirk. ‘It was pretty tricky to set up, actually.’

‘Can I see it?’ Allison asks excitedly.

Lydia leads the way to the balcony, which appears to have been magically extended to almost twice the length of Allison’s. The floor is covered in grass that feels soft and springy, even though Allison’s wearing shoes. She doesn’t think she recognizes half the plants and flowers growing here. When she sees the small yellow orb, sinking down over the edge of the balcony, disappearing from view, Allison gapes.

‘I set it so it follows the same schedule as the normal sun,’ Lydia explains. She brushes her hand over a purple flower bud. It leans into the touch. ‘Flowers need their sleep too. Some literally.’

Allison laughs in delight. She walks to the railing, feeling like a little girl walking through a magical forest, and looks down onto the street below.

‘You shielded it from view? Like you do with the sound in your apartment?’ Allison asks. She reaches out to the sinking yellow orb, but quickly pulls her hand back.

‘You can touch it,’ Lydia says, standing next to her, cupping the miniature sun in her hand. The light ripples, then settles, and continues sinking through Lydia’s hand. ‘And yes. I think it would raise some questions if people saw a small sun hovering over my balcony, don’t you?

Allison hums her agreement, brushing a finger over the sun. It’s warm, not painful like a flame or a lightbulb that’s been on for awhile, but like the sun on her skin on a warm summer’s day. Her cheeks are starting to hurt from smiling, but she can’t stop it. When she turns to Lydia, Lydia is smiling just as wide.

‘So,’ Allison begins, turning to Lydia, resolve firm in her mind but nerves churning her stomach. ‘You’ve shown me some of the wonders of the wizarding world. Can I show you some of the wonders of the Muggle world?’

‘Oh, I haven’t even started on the wonders of my world,’ Lydia smirks at her. ‘You should see me naked.’

At Allison’s choked out laugh, Lydia’s brow contracts, smirk faltering a little.

‘That was where this was going, right?’

‘It was. Eventually. I just figured we’d go out on a date first,’ Allison assures her.

‘I’d like that.’ Lydia moves a little closer, so their arms are pressed together as they watch Lydia’s little sun set. ‘What wonder of the Muggle world are you going to show me first?’

‘You ever been to a funfair?’

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi on [tumblr](http://fandom-madnessess.tumblr.com/).


End file.
